Deepal S07 2026 review

It wasn't so long ago that when a car manufacturer dropped the ball on a new model, it would be forced to live with that mistake for years and years, really only getting the chance to address it at the vehicle's mid-life update.

These days, though, all that sounds as quaint as visiting a video store, or as not entrusting your entire life to an AI helper which will surely bring about a Skynet-style robot apocalypse. Now, if a car company makes a mistake, they can usually fix it pretty quickly.

This 'new' Deepal S07 is the perfect example. Because really all that's new about it is the fact that it's nowhere near as annoying as the model it replaces. When I drove it in February it was genuinely new, and there were elements about it that I hated.

In fact, in assessing its safety features, I wrote: "The single biggest drawback of the Deepal experience has to be the most annoying, infuriating active safety systems I’ve ever come across. Honestly, it has to be experienced to be believed.

"For one, whenever I wear sunglasses it gives me an “occlusion” warning, which I genuinely had to Google, but that’s nothing compared to the driver attention monitor, which seems rigged to go off if you so much as blink, sending chimes binging and bonging throughout the cabin, increasing in number like a bomb about to go off.

"It wears a maximum five-star ANCAP rating ... but if a car has every active safety system known to man, and you want to switch them off every time you get in, is it any safer than a car that doesn’t have any systems at all?"

And here's where it gets interesting, because it's only August, and Deepal is back with an update – delivered over the air without its customers having to visit a dealership – that addresses those very concerns.

Among the changes delivers remotely is the ability to select wallpapers for the giant central screen, three memory settings for the electric driver's seat, traffic-sign recognition in the head-up display, and – crucially – a special-offer price for its customers, with a plate clearance trimming almost $10k off the drive-away price, with MY24 models now starting at $49,990 drive-away.

All of that pales in the face of the updates to the safety systems. For one, the driver distraction warning has been given a valium and told to calm the hell down, now only activating after five seconds of inattention, rather than what felt like 0.3 of a second in the pre-update model. The creepy "welcome to Deepal" messages when you start up can be switched off, while the Drive Mode system now remembers what you selected and keeps it locked in, too,

But, and this is the really revolutionary bit, Deepal has "worked hand-in-glove with ANCAP" to fit the S07 with a safety selection memory, meaning that any of the safety systems that annoy you (driver distraction, over-speed warning, you name it) can be switched off, and they stay off until you choose to turn them back on again.

In most cars, including the pre-update Deepal, this is something you have to do every time you get in the car. But now, at least in this S07, it's something you can do once and once only.

Now, the more analytically minded among you might think, 'hang on, if these safety systems are so necessary, why would ANCAP allow you turn them off forever and maintain your safety rating? It's not as if you can switch off the airbags or cut out the seatbelts, right?'

And to you I'd say that's a very good question. But, in the interests of not looking a gift horse in the mouth, if these mega-annoying alerts are a fact of life from here out, but we can quickly disable them forever, then let's just quietly celebrate that fact.

Before you get all uppity about me encouraging people to turn off safety systems, just know that I wouldn't if they actually worked. But if you can handle getting chirped at for going 50km/h in a school zone, despite it being 10pm at night, or warned to keep your eyes on the road every time you check your blind spot, then you do you.

With them switched off, you can finally focus a little more on the S07 itself, and discover that it's actually quite a nice-driving EV, though one that lacks the firework-sparking acceleration of some of its rivals.

The Deepal makes do with a single 160kW/320Nm rear-mounted electric motor which will push it to 100km/h in 7.9 seconds. In real terms, the acceleration feels solid rather than sprightly (though still much smoother and constant than any ICE-powered SUV in this price bracket), and it pairs with easy steering and a ride that irons out most, but not all, bumps pretty well.

This is not a performance EV by any measure, and it doesn't stir much in the way of emotion from behind the wheel, but as a daily commuter, it's easy, breezy – and now blissfuly warning-chime free – motoring.

Combine that with new sharp pricing and a solid seven-year/160,000km warranty, and this updated Deepal S07 is looking a different proposition to the car I drove in February.